Metro: Housing Researcher Finds A Ray Of Sunshine

spotted some encouraging signs in residential construction trends. Closed sales of newly built homes in the Twin Cities came in with a 23 percent decline compared wit the previous 12-month period. The silver lining? It's one of the mildest year-over-year declines recorded since 2005 says Jones. Jones also noted that the inventory of finished vacant homes on the market dropped by a third to 2,377, during the third quarter of 2008. Homebuilders have been trying to work through that supply because these spec homes exert a downward pressure on overall prices. These bits of relatively good news in the MetroStudy report to build on some other positive signs for homebuilders. For example, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that new home sales unexpectedly rose to 2.7 percent in September, although median sale prices dropped too. The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors reported a 42 percent increase in pending sales for September. Despite the silver lining, there's no denying the clouds; the financial crisis, more restrictive credit policies, the psychological affects of falling prices and foreclosures.